Students report mixed feelings on dorm Wi-Fi

Laptops and wireless internet have become an integral part of higher education, helping students complete work almost anywhere on campus.

But students at IU have voiced mixed feelings regarding wireless Internet in
residence halls.

“It’s really slow and inconsistent,” sophomore and Forest Quad resident Taylor Wiseley said. “It kicks me off a lot.”

Freshman and Read Center resident Ashley Schaefer agreed.

“It’s a little slow, especially when you’re running a lot of programs,” she said. “I use the landline for the most part.”

Kirt Guinn, senior manager for the campus network infrastructure, said wireless was first installed on campus in late 2000 and was then established in the residence halls in 2008.

As manager, Guinn said he oversees the installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of all campus networks to make sure they run smoothly.

More than 90 percent of the campus has wireless internet access, he said, including
all buildings.

Guinn also has a team of more than 40 people split between the Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campuses to help maintain the network.

That team, he said, does sometimes receive information and reports of the residence halls having problems with the wireless.

“When we get them, we address them,” Guinn said.

Although students might speak poorly of the wireless, Guinn said there have been very limited complaints since wireless was installed, and some students even disagree that there are any problems at all.

“Overall, I think the Wi-Fi works really well,” freshman and Forest Quad resident Kristopher Kuzeff-Harris said. “I haven’t had any problems with it, personally.”

“It’s pretty nice in Ashton,” sophomore Emilie Betz said. “It just goes out randomly.”

Guinn said there are even more wireless access points now than there were five years ago, and there are plans to increase the bandwidth and coverage of the wireless internet on campus in 2011.

“We are always filling gaps when we find them to achieve 100 percent wireless,”
Guinn said.

If problems in the residence halls persist, Guinn said he encourages students to be vocal about them — the campus is large and said his team “can’t see all of it at the same time.”

Students can report a problem to University Information Technology Services by calling
812-855-6789.

“I wish I knew these things,” Guinn said. “If we don’t know about the problems, we can’t fix them.”